Seasonal hiring is part of life in the green industry, however, hiring the wrong person can negatively impact your business. Do you realize that some of your key people most likely started off as a “seasonal” employee? Even if you are only adding a few or bringing them back, hiring the right people is singly the most important thing you can do for your business. Why? Your front line creates your bottom line. Your front line represents YOU. One negative experience with a cashier, a loader or with the crew making a delivery is all it takes to turn off your customers and have them cross you off of their list. You have to trust your team because you can’t be in all places to control your customers’ experiences, either.
Ultimately, business is people. The success of your business ultimately depends on the energy, effort and education of your employees throughout year.
You can’t play the game without a team. If you want sales, you need to have plenty of staff trained and ready … [Read more...]

My favorite Murphy’s Law is, “Why is there never enough time to do it right but always enough time to do it over?” Good question.
Here’s a fairly common example; a “loader” takes a cart out to unload plant material and hard goods into a customer’s car and they forget to bring a trunk liner or boxes to hold the products in place. Dirt is spilled everywhere and the clean up takes several minutes. This inconveniences the customer who is watching the whole scene. Doing things over costs money on many levels. Another example is the cashier who has to get authorization to perform an even exchange when no manager is available on the property to sign. The whole line is held up, radio paging goes rampant and the customers are staring at the cashier with disdain in their eyes. You may have fewer customers during summer, however they expect your staff to be prepared, informed and confident.
How many of your hours are spent answering questions that the front line associates should know? … [Read more...]

Kathryn’s Latest Posts

My favorite Murphy’s Law is, “Why is there never enough time to do it right but always enough time to do it over?” Good question. Here’s a fairly common example; a “loader” takes a cart out to unload plant material and hard goods into a customer’s car and they forget to bring a trunk liner […]

During stressful times your staff morale may suffer. Your Associates may be worried about their jobs or just making ends meet. You may have to cut back hours or you may decide to bring back fewer seasonal people and that puts a burden on your team. Morale is critical in your business. When every individual […]

Profit is such a funny word. We act as if it is real when it actually is only a concept. The other thing about profit is that it is and end result; a by-product of doing many things well. Webster’s defines profit as – “The positive gain from an investment or business operation after subtracting […]